Effect of forest management on the breeding bird community in southern Sweden

A natural and a managed forest of similar age were compared. Total bird density was three times higher in the natural forest. All species groups had higher population densities in the natural forest, but woodpeckers and warblers much more so than other groups. Hole-nesting species made up about the same proportion of the bird communities in the natural and the managed forests.Bird density in a young spruce plantation was one-ninth of that in the natural forest. Species number was higher in the natural than in the managed forest.